A Day of Pampering

   It has been a lovely day today. I haven't actually gotten anything done that I was supposed to, which is admittedly making me feel slightly anxious...but at least for once I have a valid excuse. I've come down with a nasty cold, which makes it seems like I shouldn't be having a nice day, but the cold has gotten to the point where I am no longer needing to take loads of ibuprofen and  cough drops, but where I am still very low on energy. So, because of that, and the fact that it's my day off from work, I've been spending my entire day in bed. Just writing that makes me cringe because it is so horribly unproductive, but I think it's important to just take a day every once in a bit and totally pamper yourself. It makes you so much more relaxed, focused, and ready to conquer the future days. Not to mention, a small bit of future you may feel the need to be much more productive than usual to counteract the laziness of the current day, but let's not focus on that. So, today, in my getting over sickness pamper day, I have been cuddling with my cat Slinky, eating loads of French Fries, and downing my favorite tea, Spiced Chai. And of course watching too much Netflix.

   As it is only nearing two thirty as I write this I have made more plans for the rest of my day. One, I'm going to make another cup of tea (right now tea is pretty much the only thing that I want to drink as my throat is still not at 100%), then I am going to sit and read more of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors ever, but I had never read this particular book by her before. My go-to books by her would have to be Pride and Prejudice (obviously-who doesn't like that book?) and Sense and Sensibility; but this one would definitely be ranked close behind those two. I had been in such a reading slump lately, but thankfully this book is slowly dragging me out of it. My reading habits usually involve me devouring a ridiculous amount of books at a time, and then stumbling across a series that is so good nothing else seems interesting after it, which then triggers my reading slump where I won't pick up a book for months at a time. However, a couple of days ago I was not in the mood to watch anything or do any art and was becoming horribly bored, so I decided I would scour my bookcase and see if there was anything that would be mildly entertaining to read while I took a bath. I picked out Mansfield Park, and while flipping through it I admittedly did not have high expectations as it looked rather boring, but it proved itself a worthy read once I actually started it. While the main character Fanny is rather aggravating to me, I have found that the rest of the book has dynamic characters, and an interesting storyline, with several bits that are very thought provoking. I would highly recommend this book for a rainy day by yourself, but especially for use in a book club or literature discussion.

   Moving back to what my plans are for the rest of the day after that terribly long rabbit trail; I plan on taking a bath and potentially doing a face mask. Then I am going to have pizza for dinner, and perhaps work on writing some poetry for a writing portfolio I am working on. I do need to pop into town and run a few errands, and complete several chores around the house, but that should only take about an hour of the day. I would also like to work on organizing my schedule for the next few weeks, which doesn't sound like something most people would enjoy doing in their day of pampering, but I'm kind of a strange person in that I love making tons of lists.

To sum it up, the rest of my day doesn't sound action packed and wild, but I am looking forward to relaxing and having fun. So, basically, take a day, or even just an evening every once in a while to pamper yourself and completely focus on things you love doing. Your day of pampering could look incredibly similar to mine, or it could involve something entirely different. The point is to simply enjoy yourself!